 First Pickering edition of the first known English work on fishing. Reprinted from the Boke of St. Albans, the famed sporting book originally published by Wynkyn de Worde in 1496, this essay on angling is generally attributed — although not certainly so — to Dame Juliana Berners (or Barnes), supposed prioress of Sopwell nunnery circa 1450. If that attribution is correct, this is not only the earliest printed English work on fishing, but also one of the earliest published English works by a female author. Regardless of its source, it seems to have served as an inspiration both to Izaak Walton and to William Pickering, who printed several editions of Walton, including a particularly lavish production in 1836.

The volume is printed with the original language and spelling preserved, and is illustrated with a woodcut frontispiece of a fisherman taken from de Worde's 1518 edition that is cited as the earliest known depiction of an angler fishing with a rod, as well as with six woodcuts (provided at the back of the volume in the form of four plates) showing types of poles, hooks, etc. As the title-page proclaims, the work was printed with the types of John Baskerville, making it one of the last such printings done in England. A later hand has helpfully added pencilled marginalia clarifying archaic or obscure terms and suggesting subject headers.

 Handsome manuscript rendition of the Proper for the festival of St. Eustachius or Eustace — who converted after seeing a vision of the crucifix between a stag's antlers, and was eventually roasted alive along with his family — and his companion martyrs. Possibly commissioned for the Church of St. Eustache in Paris, this manuscript offersFrench and Latin parallel texts nicely accomplished in double columns of neat text in brown withred and blue accents, ruled in blue and red with some inked flourishes; one column (along with a scattered handful of words elsewhere) is done in oblique script, while all others are upright roman.

 Contemporary mottled sheep, spine compartments with gilt-stamped floral decorations; binding scuffed with small areas of insect damage, spine with label now absent and leather lost at foot. Preliminary leaves with pinhole worming; pages slightly age-toned, with scattered mild spotting and some small smudges to letters and lines. All edges red. AN ENGAGING THING. (32913)

 Extremely scarce Dutch Orientalia. These short stories set in China are illustrated with five lovely, elaborately hand-colored lithographed plates including two scenes of childrenone in which they are blowing bubbles and one in which they are fishing out of a boat with a carved dragon prow. The first plate is very faintly marked "H.J. Backer," but the illustrations are otherwise unattributed. No holdings of this book are listed by RLIN, OCLC, or NUC Pre-1956; the only other copy we were able to find is held by the Dutch national library.

 Not in Brinkman. Contemporary cartonné binding covered in decorative printed paper, shown above right; spine showing a small undarkened area where label is now lacking. Front joint tender. Lacking pp. 33/34 and 39/40; some signatures loosening. Pages with a very few small spots, otherwise clean and pleasing. (4188)

 Promotional brochure with text, small map, many half-tone photographs, including many exterior and interior views of the hotel facilities, the baths and vapor caves (priced at 25 cents to a dollar for various levels and combinations of care). Other amusements include the Music Room, Ball Room, Great Swimming Pool, Rides and Drives, Polo, Hunting & Fishing, Waterfalls, &c.

Inspired by the Villa Medici in Rome, the Hotel Colorado at this time contained 300 guest rooms and 100 private bathrooms, with an open fireplace in most rooms. The Hotel was designed by New York architects Boring, Tilton & Mellen, and built around natural hot springs along the rail lines of the Denver & Rio Grande and the Colorado Midland RR. The Hotel Colorado opened in 1893. All of the testimonials at the back of this booklet are dated 1894.

One page tells us that The Glenwood Hot Springs Company was the proprietor, The Hotel Colorado Company, the lessee, and E.E. Lucas the manager.

 First edition: A useful overview of 18th-century British law, covering topics including parish officers, game laws, overseers of the poor, landlords, “idle and disorderly persons [i.e., the homeless],” letters of attorney, mortgages, wills, “petitions of apprentices on bad usage,” etc.

“E. Nutt” is Elizabeth Nutt, a prominent member of a noted printing and publishing family that specialized in legal works; Elizabeth was known for herdefense of liberty of the press. The present work was a collaboration with her son, Richard.

Provenance: Front free endpaper and title-page with inked inscriptions of Henry Williams, the former dated 1740.

 Sole Aldine edition of Conti’s four-part poem onhunting and also the first edition overall; it enjoyed considerable success during the author’s lifetime (1520–82) and was incorporated in many editions of his Mythologiae (first edition, 1567). The five pages of the final four leaves contain the scholia of the polymath Girolamo Ruscelli (c.1500–66), who was also a versifier of talent.

Conti, a Humanist and historian, is now best remembered as a mythographer who believed that the Classical presenters of myths meant them to be read as allegory.

Binding: 19th-century crushed midnight blue morocco, round spine with four raised bands forming five spine compartments, four of which are further defined by a single gilt rule on four sides and have each a gilt floral device in the center; each band accented with gilt beading. Author and title gilt in the fifth compartment and at base of bottom compartment, in gilt, place and date of publication. Both boards with a simple gilt triple-fillet border, board edges with a single gilt fillet, turn-ins gilt-tooled with an intricate roll. Endpapers of a French combed-up pattern.

Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

 Awhaler's account of his life and times, culminating with the voyage he and his wife made from New Bedford, MA, to Penzance, England. Joanna Crapo was the first woman to cross the Atlantic in a dory boat, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. This is a reissue of the first edition, with a postscript written by Mrs. Crapo sometime after the captain's death in 1899.

 A very opinionated autobiography recounting Frewen's numerous adventures throughout England, the United States, Egypt, the Balkans, and India, from his childhood as part of the English gentry to tales of bison used as snow plows in the Wyoming Territory. Howes notes ten chapters are dedicated to Frewen's “disastrous cattle enterprise on Powder river.”

While suffering from financial difficulties throughout his life, Frewen continually worked with influential people, many of whom are here discussed in detail, including his wife Clara Jerome, aunt of Winston Churchill. One way and another there is plenty of huntin', shootin', and fishin'; and there are plenty of politics.

Provenance: A tantalizing “Wealdside 1924” in ink on the front pastedown. The Weald is of course of huge extent, and there are therefore potentially a number of possible “Wealdsides”; but it is notable that the Frewen family dates back to Elizabethan times in East Sussex — and, perhaps, that Moreton Frewen died in 1924.

 Howes F380; Graff 1442. Light green publisher's cloth, cover ruled and lettered in black, spine and back also stamped in black; gently rubbed and text slightly cocked, with a thumbnail-sized pink stain along the edge of the back cover and speckling the bottom edge. Light age-toning with offsetting to fly-leaves; inscription as noted. A good read in a good solid copy. (37037)

CORNERSTONEfor anAMERICANSPORTINGLIBRARY

“Gentleman
of Philadelphia County, A”[i.e.,
Jesse Y. Kester]. The American shooter's manual, comprising such plain and simple rules, as are necessary to introduce the inexperienced into a full knowledge of all that relates to the dog, and the correct use of a gun; also a description of the game of this country. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Carey, 1827. 12mo (18.5 cm; 7.125"). [2] ff., pp. [ix]–249, [1] p., [1 (errata)] f., [3 (ads)] ff.; frontis., 2 plts.$1800.00

Click the images for enlargements.

 The first American illustrated sporting book and the first American sporting book written by an American. Only one sporting book published in America preceded it: The Sportsman's Companion (NY,1783; later editions Burlington [NJ], 1791, and Philadelphia, 1793), “by a gentleman, who has made shooting his favorite amusement upwards of twenty-six years, in Great-Britain, Ireland, and North-America.”

Kester deals almost exclusively with game birds and waterfowl native to the Delaware Valley that surrounds Philadelphia: wild turkeys, partridge, snipe, quail, grouse, and ducks. With regard to rifles and guns he addresses cleaning, powder, wadding, etc. And when writing about dogs, in addition to notes on training and conditioning them, he offers recipes for common ailments and gun-shot wounds.

The plates are signed “F. Kearny,” an artist born in Perth Amboy, NJ, who studied drawing with Archibald and Alexander Robertson and engraving with Peter Maverick. From 1810 to his death in 1833 he practiced engraving in Philadelphia.

There are two states of gathering “U”: this copy has the typographical error “tibbon” with the stop-press correction to “ribbon” on p. 235.

The volume ends with advertisements for several sporting and fishing goods suppliers.

 Famed German author Grass's intricate, earthy meta-novel featuring a talking flounder, eleven women cooks embodying a range of feminine experience (not to mention
culinary styles!), and more or less the entire span of human history, all loosely inspired by the fairy tale “The Fisherman and His Wife.” This work marksthe Limited Editions Club's first time publishing an edition illustrated by the author, with much intriguing interplay between Grass's etchings and text; the latter is Ralph Manheim's English translation of the original German.

Designed by Ben Shiff, the volume was printed by Daniel Keleher at Wild Carrot Letterpress (with the images printed from Carl Schütte and C. Behling's relief plates, done in transparent green with black overprinting by David Wolfe at the Anthoensen Press) and bound by Jovonis. The Club newsletter notes the five-year inception period of this project, and calls the work an “homage which these American craftpeople have paid to one of Germany's most creative citizens.”

This isnumbered copy 46 of 1000 printed, signed at the colophon by the author/artist. The appropriate newsletter is laid in.

Le Comte, Louis. Memoirs and observations topographical, physical, mathematical, mechanical, natural, civil, and ecclesiastical. Made in a late journey through the Empire of China, and published in several letters. Particularly upon the Chinese pottery and varnishing; the silk and other manufactures; the pearl fishing; the history of plants and animals. Description of their cities and publick works; number of people, their language, manners and commerce; their habits, oeconomy, and government. The philosophy of Confucius. The state of Christianity, with many other curious and useful remarks. London: Pr. for Benj. Toke & Sam. Buckley, 1697. 8vo (20 cm; 8"). [12] ff., 527 [i.e., 543], [1] pp.; frontis. (port.), 3 plt. (2 fold.), fold. table.$1800.00

Click the images for enlargements.

 In the annals of early Westerners writing about China, the members of the Society of Jesus rank high for the quantity and quality of their writings. Louis Le Comte (1655–1728) began his novitiate in October 1671, was sent to China as a mathematician and a member of the 1687 Jesuit mission under the leadership of Jean de Fontaney, and returned to Europe in 1691. In 1696 he published his Nouveaux mémoires sur l'état présent de la Chine: It caused great debate within the Chinese Rites Controversy.

This is the first edition of the English translation of that work. It begins with an engraved frontispiece portrait of Emperor Cam-hy [i.e., K'ang-hsi] signed “M. Vander Gucht sculp.” The other plates depict “The throne of the emperor of China” (folding), “Outom-Chu, a tree in China,” “The observatory at Pekin” (folding), and a folding table of “All the words that form the Chinese tongue” (!!).

The work is a classic in the field of early European accounts of China, of missions to and in China, and of travel in general. Thomas Jefferson owned a copy of this edition and may have done so for the work's sections on education in that kingdom.

Provenance: Signature of M. Middleton dated 1699 at top of the frontispiece. Later in the collection of the Pacific School of Religion (properly released).

 First edition, illustrated withfive color-printed plates by Harrison Fisher and additionally decorated with motifs by Theodore B. Hapgood, each page of text being framed by a flower and heart trellis. Arrogant (though humbly American-born) Lady Bazelhurst and her “middle-aged, addle-pated ass” of a titled husband incite a ridiculous feud with the strapping young manufacturing heir whose land abuts their Adirondacks country home — a feud happily brought to a close when (SPOILER ALERT!) Lord Bazelhurst's pretty young sister Penelope falls in love with the intrepid hunter and fisher, although not before most of the characters have to endure a stormy night in a haunted house. The novel was made into a silent film in 1919.

 Binding as above; extremities gently rubbed, spine with small spot of discoloration; hinges (inside) slightly tender and frontispiece starting to separate from foot. A pleasing copy of an appealing — and very decorative — novel. (35420)

Remembrances ofIdyllic Youth

Sassoon, Siegfried. Memoirs of a fox-hunting man. New York: Printed for the Members of The Limited Editions Club, 1977. 8vo. 284 pp.; 8 plts.$100.00

Click the images for enlargements.

 Geoffrey Keynes provided the introduction to Siegfried Sassoon's semi-autobiographical novel of his childhood and youth, explaining the author's efforts and anxieties in making the transition from poet to writer of prose; the work itself, which won the Hawthornden Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, includes much about riding and hunting in its account of the author's early life in the countryside.

Paul Hogarth illustrated the book with black-and-white vignettes, which open and close each chapter, and eight full-page color wash drawings. John Lewis designed the book choosing a monotype Walbaum font. The binding is quarter red calf over light-brown buckram sides, gilt-lettered on the spine, and gilt-stamped on the front cover with a design of various fox-hunting implements; tucked away at the lower edge of the back cover is a gilt design of a sly-looking fox in full trot.

This is numbered copy 715 of 1600 printed, and issigned by the artiston the colophon. The appropriate LEC newsletter is laid in.

 Limited Editions Club, Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by The Limited Editions Club, 1929–1985, 506. Binding as above, lacking glassine wrapper, in original slipcase; volume and slipcase clean and bright, slipcase with one tiny joint nick near the spine title. Pages crisp and clean. A lovely copy. (30453)

 Early edition, following the first of 1880 (published as Hunting the Great West): Outdoors adventures among the bears and buffalo — not to mention the trout and the alligator — as well as encounters with the Cheyenne and Sioux, all illustrated with numerous full-page and in-text steel engravings. The author (a.k.a. Coquina) was president of the League of American Sportsmen and a frequent contributor to American Field.

 Somerville (1675–1742) was a country squire whose considerable landholding enabled him to pursue his twofavorite pastimes of hunting and writing poetry while serving occasionally as a magistrate.

His “major poem was The Chace, published in 1735 and dedicated to Frederick, prince of Wales. In four books of blank verse he conveyed the excitement and dangers of the chase as well as its place in history” (ODNB).

This is the third edition, printed by William Bowyer for Hawkins, in an edition of 1500 copies, attesting to the poem'sgreat popularity. A fourth edition followed in the same year and it continued to be printed in the 18th century with an edition appearing as late as 1800, and yet others in the 19th century!

 Largely unopened copy, from a subscription edition: A rollicking
entry in a much-loved series, in which the Cockney grocer Mr. Jorrock becomes
master of the “hounds” of the Handley Cross hunt, with chaotic results.
The author was a sporting writer and novelist whose keen-eyed chronicles of the golden age of foxhunting were thought to carry a whiff of the vulgar in their day (Allibone did not deign to mention any of his fiction) — but are now appreciated for Surtees's “mordant observations on men, women, and manners; his entertaining array of eccentrics, rakes, and rogues; his skill in the construction of lively dialogue (a matter over which he took great pains); his happy genius for unforgettable and quotable phrases . . .” (DNB).

First published in 1843 and first printed with illustrations in 17 monthly
parts 1853–54, the misadventures of the enthusiastic Mr. Jorrocks appear
here “printed for subscribers from the plates of the Original Edition
issued by Bradbury, Agnew & Co.” The volume is illustrated with16
hand-colored, steel-engraved plates and 31 wood-engraved plates
by famed caricaturist John Leech. The colored scenes, many involving horses
or hounds or both, are carefully and artistically tinted; the social scenes
are more delicately shaded than the vivid hunting scenes. In addition to the
color and black-and-white plates, numerous in-text wood-engravings decorate
the text.

 NCBEL, III, 967. On Surtees, see: Oxford Dictionary
of National Biography online. Binding as above, spine much sunned
but covers bright and fresh. Signatures almost entirely unopened; contents
pages and a few other early signatures awkwardly opened with resulting edge
tears, including to upper margins (only) of five uncolored plates. One colored
plate with tiny scuff in image. Despite described faults, still a solid, bright,
beautifully illustrated copy with a great deal of charm. (30448)

 Unopened
copy, from a subscription edition: The entertaining trials
and tribulations of dedicated fox-hunter Tom Scott, illustrated by Hablot Knight
Browne, a.k.a. Phiz. See
the end of the first paragraph in our first “Surtees” entry, for
a general note on him.

First published in 1847, these vividly rendered hunting scenes appear here “printed for subscribers from the plates of the Original Edition issued by Bradbury, Agnew & Co.” The volume is illustrated with8 plates by Phiz, hand-colored, and 13 steel-engraved plates by W.T. Maude. While Phiz's caricatures are sharp and witty, the coloring itself is rather elegantly restrained. In addition to the color and black-and-white plates, numerous in-text wood-engravings decorate the text, the whole providing many depictions of the hunt.

 Unopened copy,
from a subscription edition: Misadventures of “Soapey” Sponge, a
rakish anti-hero constantly on the prowl for both a wealthy wife and a good
hunt (the latter preferably at someone else's expense). “The author .
. . will be glad if [this work] serves to put the rising generation on their
guard against specious, promiscuous acquaintance, and trains them on to the
noble sport of hunting, to the exclusion of its mercenary, illegitimate off-shoots”
(p. iii), says Surtees . . . See
the end of the first paragraph in our first “Surtees” entry for
a general note on him.

First published in 1853 as a 13-part serial, the Sporting Tour appears
here “printed for subscribers from the plates of the Original Edition
issued by Bradbury, Agnew & Co.” The volume is illustrated with13
hand-colored and 30 steel-engraved platesby famed caricaturist John Leech. The colored scenes, most of which
depict hunting or riding scenes, are carefully and attractively done with
nicely shaded tints. In addition to the color and black-and-white plates,
numerous in-text wood-engravings decorate the text.

 NCBEL, III, 967. On Surtees, see: Oxford Dictionary
of National Biography online. Binding as above, spine much sunned
but covers bright and fresh. Signatures unopened. One leaf holed in text with
loss of a few words and with some light discoloration around this, without
loss of sense. Save for the dimmed spine, a beautiful and bright copy. (30426)

 Unopened copy, from a subscription edition, its title expressing
the critical question before fair Miss Rosa as she considers the effects of
her coiffure on her matrimonial options. The novel takes a mocking look at social
life in provincial England and, although not as fixated on foxhunting as some
of the author's other tales, offers much
of interest relating to horses and hounds.See
the end of the first paragraph in our first “Surtees” entry for
a general note on him.

First published in 13 monthly parts in 1860, the machinations of Rosa and
her mamma appear here “printed for subscribers from the plates of the
Original Edition issued by Bradbury, Agnew & Co.” The volume is
illustrated with12
hand-colored, steel-engraved plates and 8 wood-engraved plates
by famed caricaturist John Leech. The colored scenes, some involving young
ladies in elegant dress and some horses and hounds, are carefully and artistically
tinted; the social scenes are more delicately shaded than the vivid hunting
scenes. In addition to the color and black-and-white plates, numerous in-text
wood-engravings decorate the text.

 One of the most beloved of all works in Swedish literature, Tegnér's Frithiof's Saga is an epic poem consisting of 24 cantos or ballads, each describing an event in the legendary hunter's life. The text of this edition was compiled by John T. Winterich from four English verse translations by William Lewery Blackley, Lucius Sherman, Thomas and Martha Holcomb, and, of all people, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. In 1837, 12 years after the epic's original publication, Longfellow wrote a paper for the North American Review synopsizing each canto, interspersing selected lines of translation in English. Longfellow's synopses, along with his contribution to the translation of Frithiof's Saga (225 lines in all), are happily here incorporated complete into one volume for the first time. Bayard Taylor wrote the general introduction.

The book is profusely illustrated with pen drawings by Eric Palmquist, who has signed the colophon; of these, some are full-page, and some are spread across two pages with the text printed beneath. Most are smaller in-text drawings, including an extensive series of decorative tailpieces.

This edition was prepared under the supervision of Ragnar Svanström at the Royal Printing House in Stockholm, Sweden, and is limited to 1500 copies. Designer Karl-Erik Forsberg used a hand-set Berling Roman font which he himself designed; Forsberg also drew uncial letters, printed in red ink, for use on the title-page and for the canto-opening initials.

The binding is half natural Swedish linen stamped on the spine in red and black; the sides are covered with Swedish paper hand-grained to look like wood, and bear a small gold-stamped design of a warship, the Norse drakkar.

This is numbered copy 972 of 1500 printed; it wassigned by the illustrator. The relevant Club newsletter is laid in.

 Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 232. Binding as above, spine slightly sunned, slipcase with moderate shelfwear to edges and one edge opening. A solid, attractive copy of a handsome book. (29946)

Vermont Lawfrom 1824 to 1834

Thompson, Daniel Pierce, comp. The laws of Vermont, of a public and permanent nature, coming down to, and including the year 1834. Montpelier: Knapp & Jewett, 1835. 8vo (24.3 cm, 9.6"). 228 pp.$75.00

Click the images for enlargements.

 As mandated by the Vermont legislature, this volume provides a follow-up to William Slade's pre-1824 compilation. Among other matters, the new legislation includesbounties for bears, foxes, and crows; anti-resurrection and grave robbing statutes; and laws and regulations for prisons, fire departments, and the changing of town names. As one of our images shows, one section relates to the University of Vermont.

The editor here waslawyer, novelist, and abolitionist Daniel Pierce Thompson, who served as Vermont Secretary of State from 1853 to 1855 and was one of the founders of the Vermont Historical Society, and who is now perhaps best remembered for his historical novel Green Mountain Boys.

 Contemporary speckled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, covers framed in blind roll; joints and extremities rubbed, sides with small scuffs and spots of minor discoloration, hinges (inside) tender. Pages cockled, with mild to moderate foxing and an old inkblot or two; one leaf with chip from outer margin, a few corners dog-eared or creased across. (36830)

 Beautifully
enhanced facsimile of the first edition of Walton's beloved
classic, possibly the highlight of fishing literature. The pages are
graced with numerous black-and-white decorations in addition to a color-printed
frontispiece and nine scenes of gentlemen fishing done in elegantly muted shades
of green, blue, and brown by American artist Frank Adams (1871–1944),
known for his children's illustrations. This is numbered copy 359 of 450 printed,
and signed by the artist.

Provenance:The publisher-issued bookplate and box label proclaim that this copy belonged to L. Haskell Sweet, a New York businessman.

 Coigney 308. Publisher's quarter vellum and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; original glassine dust wrapper and original charcoal-colored paper-covered box with personalized label present, wrapper with chips, short tears, and some creasing, and box split at seams with two side elements fully detached (one lost). Vellum of the volume's spine faintly darkened and spotted, book otherwise clean and fresh with top edges gilt; sweet identification as above. A good catch. (28332)

 First major appearance of Walton's beloved treatise in combination with his collected lives of authors, the set (here in its stated second edition) charmingly illustrated with copper-engraved plates and wood-engraved in-text illustrations. The Angler plates generally represent dashing young men — and a few young ladies — in the garb of Walton's day, while many of the in-text illustrations depict hooked fish; the Lives volume opens with a representation of the subjects' signatures within a decorative frame and includes, along with a portrait of each, ten renditions of important moments and locations in the subjects' careers as well as numerous smaller portraits, coats of arms, etc. Each volume is decorated with a vertical fore-edge painting.

Fore-edges:Angler with two jaunty 17th-century gentlemen and their rods and lines, Lives with a portrait of Walton, both paintings within arabesque frames.

 First edition of this series of lighthearted letters written in
and about the valley of the Susquehanna, near Owego, New York. An author of
notable but ephemeral fame, Willis came from a talented family: His grandfather
published newspapers in both the north and south of the U.S., his father founded
the Youth's Companion (the first newspaper specifically for children),
his sister enjoyed much literary success under the pen name Fanny Fern, and
his brother Richard Stolls Willis was a music critic and composer known for
hymns including“It Came upon the Midnight Clear.”

Willis himself was the founder of the magazine that became the Home Journal,
and was celebrated in his day for his essays and travel writings as well as
several collections of his journalistic work. The Cambridge History of
American Literature calls him the “prince of magazinists,”
and remarks on “the evanescent sparkle and glancing brilliance”
of A L'abri, later known as Letters from under a Bridge. These
charming, witty essays touch on Willis's Yale education (and its lack of practical
application!); fishing; a dinner with Lady Blessington, Benjamin Disraeli,
Count D'Orsay, and Lord Durham; the possibility of local railroad construction
to connect the Hudson with Lake Erie; the relationship of American to British
literature, etc. Whatever the ostensible topics of the individual letters,
each touches in affectionate and amusing fashion on some aspect of life in
the Susquehanna region.

A publishing practice, demonstrated: Bound
in at the back of this volume are yellow printed paper wrappers for John
Smith's Letters, and the title-page and preface for Fireside Education
— both items published by Colman in the same year as the present work.

 A beautifully bound biography containing 20 wonderful engraved plates. Initially printed in his 1796 edition of Walton's Lives, Thomas Zoucher's biography of the well-known philosophical fisherman was printed separately in response to the republication of TheCompleat Angler with the omission of any biographical detail. The Walton editor and biographer provides “considerable corrections . . . by way of notes, the result of more recent inquiries, and an attempt to narrate all that is known respecting 'honest old Isaac Walton.'”

The volume's engraved plates and vignettes include a frontispiece of “Cotton's Fishing House” and steel-engraved portraits of Walton and Charles Cotton, contributor to The Compleat Angler; they are identical with those used by Gosden in his 1822 edition of the Angler.

Binding: Midnight green morocco with delicate gilt decoration of hooks, lines, and a bobbin to front boards, with the design also featuring Walton's initials and dates (given as 1593–1683, although his birth year is also often stated as 1594); spine with raised bands and similar motifs in compartments. Wide, minimally gilt-decorated turn-ins, blue endpapers, and top edge gilt. Bound for former Boston Bookseller N.J. Bartlett & Co. bySangorski & Sutcliffe, signed.

Provenance: On front pastedown, the bookplate of Edward Ludlow Parker. Most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

 Bound as above. Offsetting of turn-ins to endpapers and additional minor offsetting to pages adjacent to plates; light staining and age-toning to a handful of pages. A classic work beautifully illustrated and in a fantastic binding; stunning, sturdy, and suitable. (37858)